Newspaper warns of shooting mess

By Shih Hsiu-chuan / STAFF REPORTER

The international community should not forget the shooting of Chinese protesters during a Dec. 6 riot at a village near Shanwei City in China's Guangdong Province as it will not be last incident in which such repressive tactics are used, attendees at a press conference said yesterday.

The Falun Gong-backed Epoch Times, an international newspaper written in 5 languages and published in 11 countries for the purpose of disclosing the abuses of the Chinese Communist Party, held the conference to appeal to the international community.

Chen Yi-shan (陳逸珊), a representative of the Epoch Times, said the Chinese government's admission demonstrated the severity of the problem.

"The authorities only admit things when the problem is too serious to be covered up," he said.

"Unfortunately, the shootings didn't grab too much attention when compared to the WTO protests in Hong Kong," Chen said.

Chen said the Chinese government's compulsory confiscation of land in the city started in 1993 when the authorities decided to establish an economic development zone.

"Since then, the Chinese government had ordered the residents of the village not to continue their rebellious activities against the land confiscation policy," she said.

Chen said that the government did not provide compensation for the residents until Oct. 22.

"However, each of the residents in the village was only provided a pitiful amount of compensation," she said.